Baku Today, Azerbaijan
July 29 2006
US mediator to start visit to the region Saturday
AssA-Irada 29/07/2006 20:12
The new US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group brokering settlement to
the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict, Matthew
Bryza, will start his first visit to the region in this capacity on
Saturday.
He is expected to visit Yerevan first, then Khankandi, the center of
the self-proclaimed Upper Garabagh republic, and then arrive in Baku.
The diplomat will hold talks with the Azeri and Armenian government
and then inform the other two co-chairs from Russia and France of the
outcome of discussions.
On Tuesday, Bryza is due to meet with President Ilham Aliyev, Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and the head of the Azerbaijani community
of Upper Garabagh, Nizami Bahmanov.
The spokesman for the Azeri Foreign Ministry, Tahir Taghizada, said
the US mediator’s visit aims to promote the negotiating process. He
noted that the opportunities for reaching peace have not been
exhausted yet.
`I believe that the key issue is that Bryza will pay his first visit
to the region in the capacity of the Minsk Group co-chair. Our hope
is for the visit to give an impetus to further negotiations,’ the
diplomat said.
The OSCE mediators are expected to gather in Paris after Bryza’s
visit to discuss future plans.

Ottawa Citizen, Canada
July 29 2006
Musicians make these pieces engaging
Unknown Piano Trios was the name of yesterday’s afternoon Chamberfest
concert at Dominion Chalmers Church. Featuring the music of the
equally unknown composers Arno Babajanian and Carl Fruhling, the
program wasn’t expected to draw a large crowd.
However, between the reputation of the Duke Trio, the air
conditioning at Dominion Chalmers and the fact that the concert was
free to pass holders, the audience counted something like 500 souls.
Babajanian, according to armeniapedia.org, was a distinguished
20th-century composer, a USSR People’s Artist and a laureate of the
State Award of Armenia. His dates were 1921-1983. He wrote music in
many genres including popular music and film scores.
His Trio is a sophisticated and powerful work that should be heard
often. Although its idiom is far from easy-listening, neither is it
avant-garde.
The Duke Trio’s members, pianist Peter Longworth, violinist Mark
Fewer and cellist Thomas Wiebe not only play well together, but
regularly enough that one never gets the sense of three competing
personalities trying to make sense of the music.
Fruhling, whose trio opened the program comes from an earlier era,
1868-1937, and seems to be known today almost entirely for his Trio
in A minor, op. 40, originally for clarinet, cello and piano, but
yesterday played by a regular piano trio (with a violin replacing the
clarinet.)
It’s a well-crafted piece, of which two movements slightly exceed in
length what they offer in interest. However, it was generally
engaging, which probably says as much about the commitment of the
players as to the composer’s undoubted talents.
Russian String Quartets
St. Matthew’s in the Glebe was the venue last evening for the Moscow
String Quartet’s final appearance in this year’s Chamberfest. The
program included quartets by Shostakovich, Schnittke and Tchaikovsky.
If one were to divide Shosta-kovich’s works into periods, as we do
with Beethoven, the Quartet no. 4 in D, op. 83 would be a
middle-period work. In fact, the composer was in early middle-age
when he wrote the First Quartet and that is why even the earliest of
them are mature masterworks.
The Moscow String Quartet, not surprisingly, knows this repertoire
well and, being the terrific ensemble it is, can put it across most
convincingly. While the entire performance was superb, the last
movement in particular had a deep feeling of summing up and
resolution.
Alfred Schnittke, a generation younger than Shostako-vich, is widely
regarded as having inherited the latter composer’s primacy in the
world of Russian/Soviet music. His music is still challenging for
today’s audiences in much the way that Shostakovich’s was 40 years
ago.
Whatever difficulties listeners had with the Moscow account of his
Quartet no. 2, it seems likely most were aware they were hearing
great music performed by some of the greatest of musicians.

Regnum, Russia
July 29 2006
Prolonged conflicts will be resolved with short wars – politician
The last developments in the Middle East and the South Caucasus are
evident of an attempt to resolve prolonged conflicts by means of
short-term military actions, leader of opposition Liberal Progressive
Party of Armenia Hovhannes Hovhannisyan said at a press conference on
July 29, REGNUM reports. He says that the military actions of Israel
against Lebanon and forced Georgian operation in the Kodori Gorge are
particular examples of the trend. `The international community is not
critical and calmly regards the Israeli military actions, waiting
until it does away with Hezbollah,’ the Armenian politician argues.
He also points out the Georgian authorities as trying to resolve the
Georgian-Abkhazian issue by force.
Hovhannisyan also does not exclude that other long-lived conflicts
such as the Nagorno Karabakh one are planned to be resolved by force.
`If the Nagorno Karabakh conflict will stay unresolved for some time
longer, its resolving by force will be possible,’ Armenian Liberals
Head noted. He says that not in vain does Azerbaijan annually
increases its military budget.
The unresolved status of conflicts threatens development of the
conflicting countries. `No matter how well does Yerevan develops,
there is a threat that it will be destroyed in a flash. The bombing
of Beirut is the evidence. For the conflicts’ being unsettled is
always imminent with resuming military actions,’ Hovhannisyan
maintains.
He also reminds that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict also threatens the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and Baku-Erzerum natural gas
pipeline. `Superpowers take part in the projects, and it is not
profitable for them to have an unsolved conflict threatening an oil
pipeline.’

Armenian paper says regional railway project to fail without US funding

Hayots Ashkarh, Yerevan
28 Jul 06

Text of report by Vardan Grigoryan in Armenian newspaper Hayots
Ashkarh on 28 July headlined “The USA is freezing Kars-Akhalkalak”

A decision by the US Congress not to finance the construction of the
Kars-Akhalkalak [Akhalkalaki]-Tbilisi[-Baku] railway at the expense of
US tax-payers reflects new geopolitical goals and priorities of the
USA in the South Caucasus region. In the pivot of these goals and
priorities there is a task to direct the South Caucasus economically
and politically towards the West via the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline and
other energy projects, and at the same time to form new regional
counter balances. It is not at all accidental that the decision of the
US Congress on 26 July was adopted in condition of the complex
situation in the US-Turkish relations.
After Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, when in its turn Turkey demanded
that the USA gave carte blanche for an invasion to northern Iraq, the
Americans made clear to Turkey that the invasion of Iraq meant
Turkey’s good-bye to prospects of joining the European Union. The
abovementioned decision of the US Congress is another important
warning to Turkey which is forming energy and transport corridors
simultaneously in several directions.
The stronger the US positions are in the Middle East and the South
Caucasus, the clearer is the fact that the USA may consider Israel its
only “governor” [in the region] which has no an alternative. Turkey,
in turn, because of its convenient geographic position has not only
alternatives but is looking for them everywhere: in Russia, in the
Muslim world, in the Caucasus-Middle East region which is rich with
energy resources.
Thus, strict political will expressed by the US Congress on 26 July is
evidence of the fact that this is not a victory of the Armenian lobby
over Turkey and Azerbaijan as many people think today. It would be
also naive to think that all this is simply a victory of justice about
which representatives of the Armenian Assembly of America declare.
Does it mean that the problem of the Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi railway
construction which contradicts US interests may be considered closed?
Given recent statements of Azerbaijani and Turkish officials, they are
ready to finance the project without US funding. But there is also
Georgia for which it would be very difficult to oppose strict
political will of the US Congress expressed on 26 July.
This resolution by the House of Representatives may lead to a delay in
the Georgian-Turkish-Azerbaijani talks on the construction of the
Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi railway and to deepening of disagreements
between the parties. As for the construction itself, it will remain
unsettled and will be forgotten later. Or on the contrary, it will be
revived depending on changes in US policy in the South Caucasus.

Armenian minister, US mediator discuss forthcoming steps on Karabakh talks

Arminfo
29 Jul 06

Yerevan, 29 July: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan has met
the US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Matthew Bryza, who is in
Yerevan within the framework of his regional visit.
Bryza has arrived in Yerevan for the first time as a new US
co-chairman and his visit has a fact-finding nature, the press service
of the Armenian Foreign Ministry has told Arminfo. The source reports
that the sides gave an assessment to the current situation in talks on
the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. Moreover, two men
discussed some details related to the main principles of the conflict
settlement which were on the negotiating table.
The sides also exchanged views on forthcoming steps on the settlement
of the conflict. After the meeting, the US co-chairman left for
Nagornyy Karabakh to meet the president of the republic, Arkadiy
Gukasyan.

Armenian president, US mediator discuss Karabakh settlement

Arminfo
29 Jul 06

Yerevan, 29 July: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan met the US
co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Matthew Bryza, today.
The parties discussed recent developments on a peaceful settlement of
the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, the presidential press service has
told Arminfo.
Bryza will leave for Stepanakert to meet the president of the Nagornyy
Karabakh Republic, Arkadiy Gukasyan, today. The co-chairman will
return to Yerevan on 30 July, then will leave for Baku on 31 July.

Malaysia Star, Malaysia
July 30 2006
Doomed to repeat the horror?
One Malaysian got a lot closer to these tragic events than was
comfortable. He came away from the experience despairing, he tells
SUHAINI AZNAM.
FOR most Malaysians, Rwanda is just a name `somewhere on the map of
Africa’. And genocide is a big word to grapple with.
But one Malaysian had the dubious privilege of coming to grips with
the tragedy at close range. After Justice Tan Sri Lal Chanda Vohrah
retired from the High Court of Malaya in 1993, he was appointed first
as a permanent trial judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for two terms (1993-2001), sitting in
the Hague, and subsequently as an ad litem judge (where he could be
called upon as need arose) in the Appeals Chamber for the ICT for
Rwanda (ICTR), sitting in Arusha, Tanzania (2001-2005).

Retired Justice Tan Sri Lal C. Vohrah desribing the horrific tales of
genocide he listened to in his capacity as a judge.
The Yugoslav stories in particular affected him tremendously because
as a trial judge, he heard first-hand accounts of the atrocities
committed by man against his fellow men.
`It was horrifying actually, the suffering the victims underwent,’ he
recalls soberly. `Bosnians were being chased out of their villages.
There were heart-rending experiences. We used to shed tears listening
to their stories.’
He was not alone. One judge was so appalled he had to down a bottle
of wine in the evenings. Another resorted to haunting art museums to
find peace of mind.
Ironically, genocide, as it is committed today, came with the
civilisation of mankind. `Before 1900, we never saw genocide as we
know it today,’ Vohrah points out.
Genocide is defined as `the deliberate extermination of a race of
people’. The past century has seen at least nine instances of
attempted genocide: the Armenians in Turkey; the Nazi holocaust; the
Cambodian `killing fields’; Yugoslavia; Rwanda; the attempt to wipe
out the tribal Karen by the military junta of Myanmar; the ongoing
displacement in Darfur, Sudan; and the ethnic killings in Sierra
Leone and Sri Lanka.
`Nothing was done until the newspapers showed (pictures of) emaciated
people in Bosnia. That was the sort of apathy we saw then. The United
Nations was propelled to do something at the instigation of the
United States.’
When Rwanda finally grabbed attention, `there was that thought, `Are
you not bothering with us because we are Africans?’ So the UN was
pushed to set up a sister commission to the one on Yugoslavia.’
Vohrah used to travel to Arusha because the Rwandan tribunal had to
hear cases in an African court.
When the ICTR was formed in October 1994, its jurisdiction was
backdated to Jan 1 of that year because its members also wanted `to
go after the minds who had instigated the mission and planned the
genocide,’ recalls Vohrah.
This tragedy happened because `politics came into play,’ he said
simply. Its propagators were `harping on ethnic fears.
‘By 1994, a lot of inter-marriage had taken place between the Tutsi
and the Hutu. But because the society is patrilineal, as long as the
father was Tutsi, his children would also be persecuted.
`Whole families were thrown into wells,’ says Vohrah. `I didn’t see
the skulls because it was thought to be unsafe for the judges to go
(to the scenes of massacres). But there was a museum of skulls in
(the capital) Kilgali.’
Globally, the trend is encouraging in that the international
community is forced to take into account that genocide does occur and
can always recur, notes Vohrah.
To prevent it from recurring, `one has to prevent the people who
commit these crimes from getting off with impunity.’
But Vohrah himself holds little hope that we have learnt any lessons
from these dark chapters of `ethnic chauvinism’.
`Well, we keep repeating them, don’t we?’ he says in despair. `It’s
human nature, that’s what it is. Human nature has to be controlled.
We must never allow the bad side of human nature to rear its ugly
head.’

KARABAKH POLITICAL EXPERT ABOUT FORTHCOMING VISIT OF OSCE MG US
CO-CHAIR TO STEPANAKERT
Stepanakert, July 29. ArmInfo. On the eve of the visit of the newly
appointed US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza to
Nagorny Karabakh, Karabakh political expert David Babayan has given
an interview to ArmInfo concerning his expectations from the visit.
He says that the visit is of both procedural and political nature. In
terms of procedure, each newly appointed co-chair should visit
conflicting countries, should see the situation with his own eyes,
should establish personal ties with the leaders. So, in this light,
this will be a kind of acquaintance visit. Still, in terms of
politics, one cannot avoid visiting Nagorny Karabakh. It is not a
secret that Nagorny Karabakh together with Azerbaijan is the key party
to the conflict, irrespective of who is negotiating today. The
restoration of the trilateral negotiating format or direct talks
between Nagorny Karabakh and Azerbaijan is just a matter of time. In
this light, Bryza’s visit is very important especially now that the
efforts to resolve the conflict exclusively through Armenian-Azeri
presidential talks have failed.
To remind, Bryza is to visit Stepanakert today and is to meet with NK
President Arkady Ghoukassyan.-0-

LEVEL OF INVESTMENT ACTIVITIES OF ARMENIAN COMMERCIAL BANKS GROWS BY
10% AND MAKES 83,12% AS OF JUNE 30
Yerevan, July 29. ArmInfo. The level of investment activities grew by
5,6% in the first half of 2006, by 10% in a year and made 83,12% as
of June 30.
According to ArmInfo ranking of the Armenian commercial banks, this
indicator grew by 12,89 % in the course of the last three years.
In the period under review, the volume of the sources attracted by the
commercial banks made AMD 267.9 billion. Besides, taking into account
the total obligations of the commercial banks, the sources they
allocated made 70,9% and the grater part of these sources were
directed to crediting the physical entities. According to the experts,
in fact, the commercial banks finance the development of the Armenian
economy, including the agricultural spheres.
According to the level of investment activities, ACBA Bank occupies
the leading position securing 194,21% or AMD 13.8 billion as of June
30, 2006. The bank made AMD 26.9 billion of crediting investments,
including 63,2% for crediting the economy and 36,1% for crediting
physical entities. ACBA Bank manages to effectively allocate the
sources in the given spheres, securing profits for many years
already. According to the level of investment activities, the five
leading Armenian commercial banks are as follows: ArmSwissBank(174,7%
or AMD 1.5 billion), “Ararat” Bank(173,5% or AMD 1.5 and 2.7 billion),
Artsakhbank(165,1% or AMD 9.8 and 16.1 billion) and “Prometey” Bank
(122,3% or AMD 2.7 and 3.3 billion). BTA Investbank secured the
highest level of investment activities that made 982,6%. This great
difference is conditioned by the fact that “BTA Investbank” entered
the Armenian commercial bank in the second quarter of 2005 by
purchasing the 48,9% of the Mezhinvestbank shares. The lowest level of
investment activities was secured by “HSBC Bank Armenia” (39,0% or AMD
23 billion).

CONSUMERS CREDITING MADE UP $169,3 MILLION OR 31,9% OF ALL CREDIT INVESTMENTS

Yerevan, July 29. ArmInfo. Consumers crediting by the commercial banks
of Armenia made up AMD 70,9 billion ($169,3 million) by June 30, 2006,
or 31,9% of all credit investments. In the first quarter of 2006 this
indicator grew by 23,5%. According to bank ranking by ArmInfo the five
leaders of consumer crediting in Armenia are HSBC Bank Armenia (AMD
9,7 billion), Ardshininvestbank (AMD 9,0 billion), ACBA Bank (AMD 6,7
billion), Armeconombank (AMD 6,5 billion) and VTB-Armenia (AMD 6,2
billion).
Trade sector crediting made up 21,1% of all credit investments or AMD
46,9 billion ($111,9 million), which is 11,2% more than in the end of
2005. The highest volume in trade crediting was provided by HSBC Bank
Armenia (AMD 7,0 billion), ACBA (AMD 5,7 million), Converse Bank (AMD
4,4 billion), Unibank (AMD 3,9 billion) and Armeconombank (AMD 3,8
billion).
Industry sector crediting made up AMD 43,1 billion or $102,8 million,
which is 19,4% of the whole credit portfolio. This indicator grew by
10,1% as compared with late 2005. The major investors in the industry
sector are VTB-Armenia (AMD 8,4 billion), Ardshininvestbank (AMD 5,5
billion).HSBC Bank Armenia (AMD 4,7 billion), Armeconombank (AMD 3,524
billion), Converse Bank (AMD 3,522 billion).
AMD 13,4 million or $31,9 million (6% of all) was invested into
agriculture. 73% (AMD 9,8 billion) of this sector was covered by ACBA
bank. In general, this sphere made up 18,3% of all credit
investments. Construction sector crediting made up AMD 8,2 billion or
$19,5 million (3,7% of the wholse credit portfoio), which is 3,8 %
more than in the end of 2005. The most of credits investments in this
sector were made by Ardshininvestbank (AMD 1,4 billion), Convesre Bank
(AMD 1,2 billion) and Artsakhbank (AMD 1,0 billion).
The total portfolio of mortgage credits made up AMD 17,4 billion
($41,6 million) by June 30, 2006, which is 7,8% of all credit
investments. The major par of mortgage crediting was provided by HSBC
Bank Armenia – AMD 7,4 billion or $17,6 million, Unibank – AMD 2,8
billion or $6,7 million, Armeconombank – AMD 1,7 billion or $2,4
million and BTA-InvestBank – AMD 944,8 million or $2,3 million.